Another 2024 Republican hopeful has decided to suspend his campaign as former President Donald Trump continues to surge in the polls.
In an interview Sunday evening with Fox News host Trey Gowdy, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina made the announcement, adding, “I love America more today than I did on May 22. But when I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. I am suspending my campaign.”
CNN reported: “The announcement Sunday night took many of Scott’s aides and donors by surprise. Two people close to his campaign said they were not given advance notice, even though it was becoming increasingly clear that Scott was facing an uphill struggle to break through in the GOP primary. The super PAC supporting Scott pulled its slate of television ads in October and, following last week’s third GOP presidential debate, decided not to make a new investment.”
“Tim ran an optimistic, hopeful message—but that’s not where the Republican base is right now,” a Republican official who was supporting the GOP senator told CNN.
Throughout his campaign, Scott managed to stay out of Trump’s crosshairs, leaving analysts to predict that he could return to the Senate and maintain a viable political future, CNN added.
That said, Scott also refused to back anyone who is still in the race, telling Gowdy, a former GOP congressman from South Carolina, that “the best way for me to be helpful” is to withhold endorsing any candidate. He also disregarded any chance of accepting an offer to become vice president.
“I ran for president to be president,” he told Gowdy. “I think I was called to run. I was not called to win, but I certainly was called to run. Being vice president has never been on my to-do list for this campaign, and it’s certainly not there now.”
🚨Breaking News: Tim Scott has officially ended his campaign for President in 2024. pic.twitter.com/oM5MHBVfaY
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) November 13, 2023
Scott frequently leaned into the issue of race, using his own successes in life to combat the left-wing Democratic narrative that racism remains a systemic problem in the country. However, he primarily criticized President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda because, in Scott’s opinion, it was his “war on poverty” that gave rise to the contemporary welfare society, which has severely disrupted black families.
“Black families survived slavery. We survived poll taxes and literacy tests. We survived discrimination being woven into the laws of our country. What was hard to survive was [President Lyndon] Johnson’s Great Society, where they decided to… take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail, and you can now measure that in unemployment, in crime, in devastation,” he said during the second GOP debate in California.
He told Gowdy on Sunday that he will continue looking for “another opportunity” to make a bid for the White House.
“I think the voters, who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they’re telling me, ‘Not now, Tim.’ I don’t think they’re saying, Trey, ‘No,’ but I do think they’re saying, ‘Not now,’” Scott said. “And so I’m going to respect the voters… and keep working really hard and look forward to another opportunity.”
Late last month, another black candidate in the race, radio host Larry Elder, suspended his campaign as well but immediately endorsed Trump.
“As I look at the path forward, and after careful consideration and consultation with my campaign team, I have made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign,” he noted in a lengthy statement.
“Now that I am exiting the race, I am proud to announce my endorsement of Donald Trump for President of the United States,” he added. “His leadership has been instrumental in advancing conservative, America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation. We must unite behind Donald Trump to beat Joe Biden and fight back against Biden’s unprecedented election interference and the left’s destruction of America.”
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